Walter Cronkite cried on national TV in 1962.  When my mom saw it, that was when she cried, too, after holding it in for at least a couple of hours since the news first started to spread that Kennedy might be dead.  And the whole country cried with him, too.

And in 1968, when Cronkite returned from reporting on the Tet offensive to say that the best we could expect from the war was a stalemate, America almost turned on a dime.  Even President Johnson said, "If I've lost Cronkite then I've lost middle America."

Johnson was wrong, of course, because he had lost a much greater part of America.  And even though Cronkite was wrong -- the end was worse than a stalemate for our Vietnamese allies -- he was essentially correct, and the country knew it.  Cronkite had told us that we had nullified a treaty giving the Vietnamese the right to vote on the form of government that they wanted.  He had told us that what actually had happened in the Gulf of Tonkin -- Johnson's excuse to vastly expand the war -- might have been quite different from what the White House had told us.  And by the end of his broadcast on February 27, 1968, we knew that America had to get out of Vietnam. (Unfortunately, the final proof didn't come until 1982, when we learned from a CBS documentary that Gen. Westmoreland had lied to us about progress in the war.  Westmoreland sued CBS for libel, but dropped the suit when two of his former intelligence officers, Major Gen. Joseph McChristian and Col. Gains Hawkins, testified that they had been ordered to change Communist troop strengths reports for political reasons.  Although the process involved in the editing of the documentary has been criticized, its statements of facts stand unrefuted.  However, the lawsuit seriously eroded journalists' confidence in their abilities and freedom to make documentaries, and journalism never has recovered.)

There are people who vilify Cronkite as a traitor for expressing his opinion about Vietnam.  Cronkite was, after all, a liberal because he thought we should not have been fighting in Vietnam, and being a liberal means to some that you must be a traitor.

But what they don't recognize is that Walter Cronkite made a clear distinction between reporting the news and giving commentary.  Watching his broadcasts, you knew which was which.  Even though you might disagree with his opinions (leaving you with the minority of Americans), very few people deny that he reported the facts straight.

Walter Cronkite was called "The Most Trusted Man in America".  And he was, much to the chagrin of the minority far-right.  There's going to be some right-wing smirking in the media in the next few days.   But many, many more people will be saddened, and wishing Walter well.  They are grateful for his service to his country.

by EveningStarNM on 06/27/2009 07:37:34 PM EST